Tesla

Tesla was incorporated in July 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. In early 2004 Elon Musk led the ~$7.5M Series A — investing about $6.5M of his own money — became chairman, and was the company's largest shareholder; he took over as CEO in October 2008 during the financial crisis and has led it since. A 2009 settlement recognises Musk, Eberhard, Tarpenning, JB Straubel and Ian Wright as co-founders.

Tesla's strategy, laid out in Musk's 2006 "Secret Master Plan," was to sell a low-volume sports car (Roadster, 2008), then a more affordable sedan (Model S, 2012), then a mass-market car (Model 3, 2017), while providing solar power. It worked: the Model Y became the best-selling vehicle of any kind on Earth in 2023, and Tesla has delivered roughly 9 million vehicles cumulatively.

Beyond cars, Tesla builds the world's largest fast-charging network (Superchargers, now the North American NACS standard), grid-scale batteries (Megapack), home storage (Powerwall), solar, the Optimus humanoid robot, and a Robotaxi/FSD autonomy program. In October 2021 it became the sixth US company worth $1 trillion.